Journal Blog #4: What is your Category?

Now, you need to take this course where you want it to go. The only rule we have is our theme, Health and Nutrition. This includes a whole variety of ideas related to Economics, to Health, to Lifestyle, and Culture. It can also include ideas like mental health, happiness, motivation, and inspiration. I'm open to where you want to go. In this journal blog, let me know what you're thinking about.

I'm asking you here to tell me your Category. You don't need to know your exact topic yet, but let's start the process together. If you know more than your Category... let me know that too, and I'll help you to develop it further.

Remember to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #3: Try your best Introduction

We discussed in class different ways to start an essay. Starting is always the hardest part. You want to get words on that blank screen or page, but you also want to choose the right words that are going to give your reader a reason to read.

More than that, you have to inform you reader. You have to slowly, gently, and creatively pull the reader into the world of your essay. You may need to provide the statisitics or research. You may need to give the reader and example or two. You may have to tell the reader a story.

We practiced in class with two example topics: "men's body image" and "Thai street food." In this journal blog, post your best try at an Introduction. The best examples will be reviewed in class.

Remember to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #2: Nudge Nudge

In this part of our report on food and the obesity problem around the world, it discusses the obsession of dieting. An entire industry of media, tv shows, advertising, books, and companies have made a big profit on big people. Old adages like "just eat a balanced diet" and make sure you moderate your lifestyle with "good food and exercise" have been taken over by more extreme kinds of advice: no wheat! no starch! no trans-fat! no meat! VEGAN! and so on...

In our busier and more stressful lives, we look for short cuts to stay thin and join diet plans that have wholesale guarantees. When actually, the only thing we need to do is take a walk once a day... go play tennis with a friend... join a yoga group...  and then eat whatever you want.

In this journal blog, read Part 9 called Nudge Nudge. Identify the main idea of the essay. Identify the key points. Post your summary of it.

Remember to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #1: How has your diet changed since you were a kid?

The theme for this term in ERS is Health and Nutrition. We all like food. We all like our health. Our health depends almost totally on the food that we consume and then what we do to take care of it after. This term, we will read a report about changing diets around the world and the growing concerns about health and nutrition.

Thai food is famous. Thai food is something Thai people take enormous pride in. Yet, many worry that busy Thai people are turning to other fast food options: more salts, more fats, more sodas... more convenience. American fast food restaurants are finding success in Bangkok and around the country. This brings up concerns of health and changing diets among some groups of Thai people, and worries that they too might follow the unhealthy and obese trends we're seeing in the West.

The question for this first blog is: How has your diet (ie: the food that you eat) changed since you were younger? Has it changed at all? Or, have you made conscious decisions about what you eat, how much you eat, and so on. I'd like to know.

Remember to include your ID# in your post. I look forward to reading your thoughts. Aj. M

Journal Blog #4: What happens next?

By now, you would have an Introduction. This Introduction bring the reader into your world. It does this by presenting a kind of an anecdote about the point of your essay. It may do this by citing statistics, quotations, and research that show a surprising fact or trend or problem. Which ever way you do this, make sure your reader is hooked; the writing should make the reader wonder... be curious... and ask him or herself: So...   WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

What happens next? What are the ideas you will use to organize your Body Paragraphs? Don't just think of ideas. Think of GOOD ideas. Think of SURPRISING ideas. Think of ideas that we wouldn't normally think about. In the Introduction, you have to hook the reader's attention. In the Body, you have to keep the reader's attention.

For this final journal blog, please write your thesis statement and tell me what 3 or 4 body ideas you plan to use to support the thesis statement. Remember to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #3: What is your Area of Interest?

At this mid-point of our very fast Summer term, we have read 6 different essays and considered a variety of themes and ideas. Now, it is your job to jump from these ideas with your own interests.

In Journal Blog #1, you wrote about your Major and why you were interested in that subject. The best topics for a Final Essay can combine your own interests in your Major with the themes we have been looking at so far in ERS: Technology, Leadership, Health, Art, Inspiration, and Culture. Work to link your own interests with one of these themes to create a narrow topic for an essay of 2-3 pages.

In this Journal Blog, I would like to know about your Area of Interest, and then hopefully we can work to narrow further from there to develop the topic of your final assignment of the term.

Don't forget to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #2: What is your Writing Weakness?

Writing is hard. Writing takes time. Writing takes effort and care, and it is a riddle of rules and wrongs. You have to worry about capitalization, punctutation: commas and comma splices. Run on sentences...  Fragments...  Adjective phrases... Participials...  partici- WHAT!!??

Why would anyone like writing? Well...  I guess it is because it is the way we make words last. It is the way we record the things we think. When we say something out loud, we usually forget what we said later. Written words stick. Written words matter. Writing is important. Writing is hard.

In this journal blog, apart from the craziness of grammar, what is your weakness in writing?

Include your ID# in your post.

Journal Blog #1: Summer Edition of ERS

Dear Students...  welcome to this summer edition of ERS. In this term, we are wide open in the types of themes and ideas that we can explore. We will read about Aung San Suu Kyi, the Democracy leader from Burma. We will read about Dave Brubeck, the jazz music legend who sadly passed away this past year. We will look at an essay about women moving up and demanding higher salaries. We will also look at an essay about the dangers of Yoga...  you can see that our topics are wide in range, which may help you to find something that you haven't thought about before and would like to think about more.

Also, you all come from a wide range of majors and study interests. In this first journal blog, I would like you to explain your major, why you chose this major, and what you hope to get from it. This will help me to know your interests and work to relate what we do in class to your own studies.

I'm looking forward to the term. Make sure that you include you ID# in your blog post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #5: What happens next?

You have been working hard on your Introductions, and by now, you will all have clear Thesis Statements with a point and a direction...  now the same question from Day 1: What happens next?

Remember to focus. You have plan. You have your point; don't lose it. Think of 2-3 body ideas that clearly, concisely, and cleverly support your point. Develop them with relevant supporting details. Remember your reader. If a reader reads it, would a reader understand it? Or does it need further explanation, examples, and clarification? You need to ask yourself again and again.

It is fine if you get it, but it only matters if the reader does. Get it?

Include your ID# on this last journal blog post for the term. Aj. M

Journal Blog #4: What is your area of interest?

In this journal blog, explain what area/subject/situation...  and topic that you're planning to write about. Make sure it is narrow and specific. This may not seem like a big deal now, but it will be later when you start to write your essay. Once you know it, you can then develop a clear Thesis Statement so we can know what happens next.

Post your ideas here, and I will work to help you focus. Remember to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M